Storms halt PGA, leaders yet to tee off

A man jumps over a puddle on the 18th hole at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., Saturday.

A large weather system charged into New Jersey on Saturday, halting play at the PGA Championship before the leaders started their third rounds.

The plan is to resume at 7 a.m. today, making it a sprint to the finish that would see the players with the best chance to win play 36 holes before sunset.

So the PGA is the third major this year in which weather caused havoc and controversy.

The good play was enough to lift him within three shots of co-leaders Jimmy Walker and Robert Streb, who were yet to tee off when he putted out at the 18th. Round four will start from 1.40pm BST, with players teeing off in the same pairings as was the case for round three.

There are thunderstorms in the forecast for both Saturday and Sunday, so delays are a definite possibility. The defending PGA champion was up and down on the front, including a double bogey on the 7th, but he looked like the top player in the world after that, draining birdies on 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, and 15.

McIlroy came to the only two par-5s on Baltusrol at 3 over; the cut would be plus 2.

Well, Mickelson clearly changed from early Friday, when he opened his first hole with a triple bogey, including a shot that left Baltusrol altogether, bounced down the street and ended in a neighbor’s yard.

Heavy rains forced the third round to be suspended Saturday with 10 golfers not ever having started their rounds.

Of possibly seeing a 62, Mickelson reasoned that players could use the greens as dart boards, and with Baltusrol playing at a par of 70, eight birdies and no bogeys is required to reach the magic number.

Top-ranked defending champion Jason Day of Australia, only two shots back of United States co-leaders Jimmy Walker and Robert Streb, and British Open champion Henrik Stenson, who sat three adrift, were among those unable to tee off due to unsafe weather. Mickelson and Henrik Stenson shots 63s this month in the British Open.

Ireland’s Padraig Harrington also shot up the leaderboard with a 65 of his own to be tie for tenth at four-under-par. He has won five PGA Tour titles in his career, but before this week had never led in a major championship. “Everything is underwater, regardless of whether the lightning stopped”, said Streb, who matched the low round in major history with a seven-under 63 on Friday.

Walker added a 66 to his opening 65 to post a nine-under-par score of 131 and equal the lowest halfway total in the year’s final major, although he bogeyed the last to cost himself a share of the all-time major record of 130 held by Martin Kaymer, Brandt Snedeker and Nick Faldo.

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Five-time major victor Phil Mickelson predicted the all-time major low-round record of 63, achieved 30 times by 28 different golfers, will fall this weekend at Baltusrol. He is only three back of the leaders and will need to hole just a few more putts if he wants to take home his second straight major championship.